Steel Series MMO Gaming Mouse Legendary Edition

Today we take a look at the Steel Series MMO gaming mouse Legendary Edition up for review. This is the third mouse that Steel Series has developed with cooperation from Blizzard Entertainment, the company responsible for the hugely successful Diablo, StarCraft, and World of Warcraft series with ten million users worldwide. The first mouse from SteelSeries was announced during the 2008 Blizzcon Event that has been held annually in Anaheim since 2007 and before that in October of 2005. The first generation MMO gaming mouse wasn't tied to any certain theme other than World of Warcraft in general. The first generation MMO mouse boasted a rather large base, 15 buttons, and 16 million color combinations. The second generation MMO gaming mouse was inspired by the third expansion, Cataclysm. This mouse boasted a narrower base, 15 buttons, and 16 million color combinations to choose from.

The third generation MMO gaming mouse, the [Legendary Edition], is based off of the Legendary Thunderfury Sword, which is a weapon of legendary. Legendary quality items are very rare in World of Warcraft and represent the best of the best. Does the Legendary Mouse represent the best of the best? The Legendary Edition mouse has 11 ergonomically placed buttons for binding skills and macros to. The Legendary Edition mouse connects to the PC via a 2-meter USB cable and comes with software that facilitates in-game or out-of-game configuration. The Legendary Edition mouse comes with a 1 year warranty from the date of purchase and retails for $79.99, which is about the middle of the range when compared to gaming mice of similar quality and functionality. The sport of competitive gaming is growing and so is the hardware to maximize speed, precision, and efficiency. The Legendary Mouse is compatible with both Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X operating systems.

When we first received the SteelSeries MMO World of Warcaft Mouse: [Legendary] Edition, we were very delighted at the level of design and detail on the retail package. The packaging looks very similar to the original World of Warcraft game box from Blizzard Entertainment, which brought about a serious case of nostalgia from that moment on. The front of the package was designed nicely that shows off the design and graphics of the mouse. The package features a flip open cover to reveal the actual mouse covered with a plastic molding so you can get a feel for how it looks and how it will fit in your hand without ever having to open the package. This is a very nice feature that gives potential buyers a way to see and feel the mouse without having to open the package and pull everything out. Turning the package over we found additional information related to the mouse. The back of the package gives details (in many languages) of the mouse along with pictures that represent the software and how it relates to the hardware. We were thinking that the package felt and looked so great but would it be able to perform as well as it felt or fall short as so many others have in the past. We were anxious to see exactly how the mouse would hold up in real-world testing.

Mouse Features:

SteelSeries software to allow in-game setup. This works for both Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X

11 Buttons to bind custom actions to: 130 preset actions or custom macros. The presets can be taken from the following categories:

- Easy to use interface for creating macros- Custom paint job inspired by the Legendary Thunderfury, which was the first legendary Blizzard Entertainment put into the game. Fitting since this is SteelSeries’ first every legendary mouse. It was easy to see how much thought was put into this product from the initial package to the game play.- 16.8 million color options with the ability to change the pulse and the intensity. We played around with the color scheme for quite a while and found that the reds and oranges looked the best. This is all personal preference of course - 10 profiles. We loved this feature because we are all altaholics and play several characters at a high level (IE raid/pvp). This software allows us to bind buttons to abilities for all the different characters we have.

Physical Attributes of the mouse

The SteelSeries World of Warcraft Legendary gaming mouse has 11 buttons that are ergonomically set-up for comfortable gameplay. The mouse is just over 4.5 inches long, about 3.2 inches wide and about 1.5 inches high. The Legendary Mouse weighs in at about 4 ounces. This mouse is much smaller than the previous generations of the SteelSeries World of Warcraft gaming mice. We found the mouse to be very comfortable during hours of non-stop gaming. The sleek design made resting of our hand on it very comfortable and relaxed. Any user moving from a standard mouse will easily be able to adapt to this gaming mouse. Although it has fewer buttons than the previous generation mice, it still had more than enough buttons to bind out main attacks and macros. The positions of the buttons were very well laid out. The buttons are clustered in groups to allow the thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers to easily access them during gameplay. We found that after a little time playing World of Warcraft with this mouse, we were able to find the buttons without having to look down at the mouse.

A great feature of the Legendary Mouse is the thumb control buttons. The thumb is able to control four buttons (Buttons: 7,8, 9, & 10). We were worried a little at first because we have used mice in the past that had thumb buttons that never seemed to play out like we hoped they would. On other mice that make heavy use of buttons your thumb controls, we would tend to hit them while moving and accidentally perform actions in-game that we didn’t intend to do. We were happily surprised that the legendary mouse didn’t have this problem. The buttons were easy to press but at the same time sturdy enough to allow us to move the mouse without accidentally pressing them. We really liked the layout of the thumb buttons. We cannot stress this enough. They were designed for ergonomics and comfort and the design definitely met functionality.

The index and middle fingers control the usual set of buttons (Buttons: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6). These are the main buttons that will be clicked the most during game play. During testing, we found that they supported the fingers very well and were very responsive to pressure but like the thumb buttons, not sensitive enough to have accidental clicks while resting. The size of each button differs a bit, but once you get used to their location, they become very useful.

The last button (Button: 11) is controlled by the ring finger. This is the button that will give people problems, if they are to have a problem with this mouse. This is due to the fact that it is hard to move just the ring finger without moving the pinky finger because they share a common tendon, unlike the other fingers, which are independent of one another. Clicking button 11 takes a little getting used to but with a little practice, it become easier. For users with smaller hands, this will become more of an issue. We recommend binding something to it that doesn’t require a lot of use, such as a potion or some out of combat action.

Setting Up the WoW Legendary Edition

Mouse Configuration Software

Unlike most other products we test here at Legit Reviews, the SteelSeries MMO Gaming Mouse: [Legendary] Edition did not come with a driver to install. The quickstart guide pointed us to the SteelSeries website for the driver. At first, we believed this was a flaw in the product but after some thought, if someone was going to buy an MMO gaming mouse, they most likely have a network connection. We then realized that SteelSeries could then more closely control which version of the driver and firmware the mouse would receive due to this model of software distribution. The mouse works like any other plug and play mouse when you initially plug it in so initial mouse control is not a problem. Upon download and install of the software, the mouse was upgraded the most recent version of the firmware. The firmware upgrade was automatic and other than a 20 second loss of control, we never had any issues going through the upgrade process. It was all very automatic and quite nicely done.

The mouse configuration software that SteelSeries provides for configuration (both in-game and out-of-game) is one of the best configuration software packages we have ever used. It is very intuitive and designed very well. The user interface was designed with a very cool tabbed interface that breaks down the configuration into 3 components: computer, mouse, and game.

From the launch of the software it was clear there was a lot of thought put into this product, just as there was for the hardware. From the main panel, there are tabs (closed initially) for controlling different aspect of the mouse. On the left, there are the general mouse properties that the operating system and every application will benefit from. These properties include CPI (counts per inch) value, double-click speed, scroll speed, pointer speed, and advanced sensitivity setting (x and y). These advanced sensitivity settings are aimed for the pro-gaming adjustment that will give the most advanced gamers the cutting edge. The optical sensor of the mouse has the following specifications:

Frames per second: 3600

Inches Per Second: 130

Counts Per Second: 3200

Acceleration: 30G

Lift Distance: 2mm

This mouse flies. We had to turn up the CPI and turn down the pointer speed in order to keep the pointer on them game screen. This was due to the dual headed gaming system we had to test on.To the bottom of the main panel are the illumination settings for the mouse. This is a pretty simple window to change the color of the mouse LED, the intensity at which the LED glows, and how fast the mouse will pulse in color. A very intuitive design that is very simple and easy to use.

The final configuration window is to the right of the main window. This is where all the custom settings take place for in-game configuration. There are 7 different game command sections to choose from when binding actions to your buttons. In addition, if you want to bind custom macros to certain buttons, this is where you would do it. In-game configuration exists in addition to the stand alone software configuration tool that SteelSeries provides. You never have to use the SteelSeries software if you don’t want to, although you would miss out on a lot of the custom features the mouse provides, such as macro programming and customizing the pulsing color to your liking. The basic features are there in-game, such as binding buttons to actions and it is clear that SteelSeries worked hand-in-hand with Blizzard Entertainment to get the in-game configuration working so well.

We can’t speak highly enough about the ease of use of this configuration software. So many times we have tried to use software from a hardware vendor and had to fight with it to get it to work. SteelSeries put a lot of thought into this software package and it shows.

Final Thoughts on the WoW: Legendary Edition

We only found a couple of drawbacks to this mouse. One is the fact that if you’re a left handed player, this is not a mouse you will be able to enjoy. This isn’t a huge problem since only about 10% of people are left-handed. The second drawback is the 11th button. The button takes a bit of practice to click it efficiently and will probably take a bit getting used to for most players. However, training the body to do something that it’s not used to doing is always a good thing. It helps keep us sharp! The last drawback is that that World of Warcraft has been out since November 2, 2004. We just wish we could have had this product sooner!

We have recently been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic and we were very happy when we were able to bind all of the buttons on the mouse to various actions in Star Wars: The Old Republic. We found it especially useful to be able to bind our companion actions to the mouse buttons. The default key binds for the companions aren’t very accessible and using the mouse for these actions really made the game play of Star Wars: The Old Republic more fluid.

After playing many hours of World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic with the SteelSeries MMO Mouse: [Legendary] Edition, we were very happy with the thought and effort Blizzard Entertainment and SteelSeries put into this product. The performance was better than any other gaming mouse we have used before. The ability to configure the mouse to our desired specifications was very easy and intuitive. On top of being very easy to configure, the mouse was also very comfortable to use over hours of non-stop gaming. The in-game and standalone configuration software are some of the best we have ever used. The response and settings gave us the configurability that we needed as gamers to help us maximize our gameplay. The width, shape, and weight are perfectly balanced. The mouse is very solid yet moves very smoothly with little effort.

The SteelSeries third generation MMO Gaming Mouse: Legendary Edition
proved to be a great gaming mouse that gave us that edge needed when
gaming in a competitive environment. The mouse felt solid and well
built that one comes to expect from a mice of this caliber and a company
like SteelSeries. SteelSeries has continued to improve upon the previous generations of their MMO gaming mice and the MMO Mouse 'Legendary Edition' is the best yet. The mouse works great with World of Warcraft as well as Star Wars: The Old Republic. The SteelSeries MMO Gaming Mouse 'Legendary Edition' retails for $79.99 and should be on the list of mice to consider for any MMO gamer looking for a new mouse or hardware that will give them the upper edge on the competition.

Legit Bottom Line: The SteelSeries World of Warcraft MMO Legendary Edition mouse is very configurable and provides options to fit just about any gaming style. If you like comfort and functionality combined with some WoW bling, then this is the mouse for you.